NYU Alumni Magazine

“Too often inaudible above the thunder of ceremonial applause for Dr. King’s ennobling dream is his remonstration that black Americans were dealt a check after the Civil War that came back marked ‘insufficient funds.’ ”

—NYU HISTORIAN DAVID LEVERING LEWIS AT A DISCUSSION ON THE LEGACY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. HOSTED BY THE JOHN BRADEMAS CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF CONGRESS

“I don’t think a president who takes over the command of the armed forces in war can come out of that untouched. It’s one thing to have a great worldview and talk about American leadership, it’s another thing to be at the airbase when they bring the coffins back or go to Walter Reed and see kids who are permanently maimed because of your decisions. And I think George W. Bush felt that enormously, and that President Obama feels it very, very heavily.”

—RET. GEN. WESLEY CLARK SPEAKING ON THE 2012 ELECTION IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT AT THE SCHOOL OF CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES’ CENTER FOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS

“On TV shows that they have today, they make it look like you’re gonna become famous overnight—and it doesn’t work that way. It just doesn’t. And the kids, they’re not singing now, they’re screaming.”

—A SPECIAL CONVERSATION WITH CROONER TONY BENNETT HOSTED BY THE HUDSON UNION SOCIETY AT THE NYU SKIRBALL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS